Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Productivity Commission report identifies mixed results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister, Nigel Scullion, says the Productivity Commission report on Indigenous wellbeing is a "call to arms for every Australian".
The report shows there has been an alarming jump in the number of Indigenous people being jailed and self harming, and while life expectancy and child mortality rates have improved, the rates of disability and chronic disease remain high.
In a statement, the Productivity Commission said the 2014 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report showed "some positive trends in the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, with improvements in health, education and economic outcomes".
But it said results in areas such as justice and mental health continued to cause concern.
Senator Scullion agreed and said some aspects of the report were deeply disturbing.
"I think this report is all call to arms for every Australian. To focus on how we can assist our first Australians in having the same deal that we all take for granted," he told reporters in Canberra.
"This report, fundamentally, is a reminder of just how badly we have gone in all our attempts in the past."
Despite the findings of the report, Senator Scullion rejected calls from Labor to reverse a funding cut to the portfolio in the May budget.
He said "throwing more money" at the portfolio was not the answer.
Peter Harris, chairman of the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, said the OID paper served as a "public report card".
"It can help governments assess the effectiveness of current policies and inform the development of new approaches," he said.
"It can assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to hold governments to account, and to develop their own responses to the disadvantage that limits the opportunities of too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians."
Self-harm and psychological distress on the increase
Mr Harris said "several health outcomes [had] improved, including increased life expectancy and lower child mortality. However, rates of disability and chronic disease remain high, mental health outcomes have not improved, and hospitalisation rates for self-harm have increased".
Hospitalisations for intentional self harm increased by 48 per cent from 2004-05 to 2012-13, while the report found the proportion of adults reporting high or very high levels of psychological distress increased from 27 per cent to 30 per cent for the same period.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner Mick Gooda said there was an obvious link between suicide, self harm and mental health.
"One almost follows the other here, self harm, suicide, mental health," he told ABC NewsRadio.
"It provides a conundrum for government because we've got to maintain the effort in the areas that are improving while at the same time, looking at the areas not improving and seeing how we can invest in those areas as well.
"I would hate to see the Government look at this and say 'infant mortality and birth weights are going in the right direction, that's done. Let's move onto mental health and self harm'.
"I don't think you can do that. I think it's got to be treated holistically and therein lies one of the issues for government to consider out of this report."
But it is not all bad news, with the gap in life expectancy narrowing from 11.4 years to 10.6 years for males and from 9.6 years to 9.5 for females from 2005-2007 until 2010-2012.
Mr Gooda said it was the result of previous investment to improve Indigenous health outcomes.
"About five, six years ago, $1.6 billion went into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and we always said it would take some time for that amount of money to have an effect," he said.
"What we're seeing now is the effect of that big investment starting to produce the results we were looking for."
Mortality rates for children improved significantly, particularly in the 0-1 year age group, where rates more than halved.
Gooda calls for targets
Mr Harris said economic outcomes improved over the longer term "with higher incomes, lower reliance on income support, increased home ownership, and higher rates of full-time and professional employments," but added that improvements had slowed in recent years.
There was an improvement in post-secondary education outcomes, but almost no change in literacy and numeracy results, "which are particularly poor in remote areas", Mr Harris said.
The Productivity Commission supports our view in that things like incarceration rates need to have a target.Mick Gooda
The report found the number of 20-24 year olds completing year 12 or above increased from 45 per cent in 2008 to 59 per cent in 2012-13.
There was also an increase in the proportion of 20-64 year olds with, or working towards, post-school qualifications.
The report recorded little or no change in the proportion of students achieving national minimum standards for reading, writing and numeracy from 2008 until 2013.
Justice outcomes continued to deteriorate, "with adult imprisonment rates worsening from already high rates," Mr Harris said.
Juvenile detention rates also increased dramatically between 2000-01 and 2007-08, and "fluctuated since at around 24 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth".
The adult imprisonment rate rose 57 per cent between 2000 and 2013.
But Mr Gooda said it was important to consider the justice outcomes in connection with mental health results.
"It's almost looking at cause and effect," he said.
"People suffering mental health [issues] will probably have more contact with the criminal justice system and therefore, they're in jail more.
"The Productivity Commission supports our view in that things like incarceration rates need to have a target.
Mr Gooda said he was "disappointed the Government has moved away from that commitment they gave before the election to have targets in this justice area".